Miss Amber

Making Future Dance Stars

We all look back on our years and think- did I push my self, did I try at all, could I have done more? I don’t want that for my students, I want them to be the next famous dancer in whichever category they thrive in.

How does one become such a teacher?

Location, location, location – yeah, we’ve heard that phrase but location can’t stop the teacher you are! The word you are looking for is engage and it will produce change in your students before their own eyes. Engaging your students will keep them eager not only to learn but to do better, beware of competition that quickly raises in class between students.

How do I plan to better help my students?

I want to engage my students inside and outside of the studio. To help them focus on certain aspects in each class that they can improve upon. I want to build a strong dancer from within. To build through stepping stones, laying the foundation for pointe work or competition level readiness.

While I currently teach three classes -Jazz III, Ballet III/IV and Pre-Pointe I/II- this post will focus solely on Jazz level 3.

Class Roster

While I do not have the fortune of having my class list prior to class, this would be the first thing I would cross off on my To Do List!

Having a class roster in advance, gives a teacher time to familiarize themselves with the dancers names (I am horrible at pronouncing names), gives me time to name every thing I create and it makes the first day easier. Having the roster also lets me prepare my syllabus if I know that students enrolled.

Syllabus

Again, in a perfect world, my next step would be to create my syllabus for the class. Since I am entering this session blindly, I will be creating my syllabus following our first day. I find it is best to create a fresh syllabus for each class each year so that it caters to the dancers without straying from the goals and levels. To give you a better idea here is how I would go about the syllabus based on the situation.

Fall/Spring: 14-16 Week Course

If I had a guarantee enrollment for half a year I would lay out three things:

What I expect of them to be at level.

What I expect them to accomplish to move up to the next level.

How I can universally help the class.

This would be a variation of the session prior as well as the session to follow. Some classes students repeat because they have not mastered body awareness in certain movements and need more strengthening. I would layout a calendar and mark it off per categories I want to cover – Arms, Abs, Feet, Stretch. Then I would correlate the focus with the category for the day to get the best all around class.

Full Year: 36-40 Week Course

If I had a guarantee enrollment for a full year I would be super pleased, as I want to build my studio to be more educational and school like. I again lay out three things:

What I expect of them to be at level.

What I expect them to accomplish to move up to the next level.

How I can universally help the class.

This would be a set year layout that would not alter or vary from year to year. Every student would have to meet the requirements to move up for the following year. Some classes students repeat but would have the option to test out and move up within a year. The only reason I would alter a syllabus is to break it into different levels such as an A and B.

These classes have a already been mapped out by category and give the perfect rotation of focus throughout the year in order to have the highest graduation rates.

Leveling

The first thing I did for this session was create my Jazz Class Leveling sheet, pictured below, to have a visual reference guide for my evaluation sheet.

Class leveling is a great asset because it give you the guidelines as to what you expect from your students. Crossing both 1 and 2 off the list above. In my sheet you will notice the level number next to the step, and because I am working a 7 week schedule at the studio I have set up 7 “tasks” per level.

I like to have the same number of “tasks” as of weeks in the lesson plan, because it helps create the daily plan and focus! I look at it as what would we work on if we were in that level each class session. This is a great way to understand a dancers level and to help them understand their level.

I intend to use this sheet (to make copies for each student) and to mark off what they have down and leave what needs improvement blank so that they know that is a level task they have not mastered and need to focus on it if they want to move up.

Evaluation

Second for me this Fall was creating my evaluations. With this being the first time I have done this, I started with level 1 and continued to level 4; each containing 7 steps or movements, three people to test at a time, and four categories listed as: Poor, Fair, Good and Excellent.

I find that in a large class single evaluations take a long time, so if a student wants the most accurate evaluation from me I will suggest a private class to be evaluated and given the results to help them take the steps necessary towards improvement. To remedy flipping through students individual sheets of grading I have places each level onto a single sheet and have 3 spaces for students to be evaluated at a time.

I find that it is easier to have them do a combination of the tasks for each level at a time to keep the stamina accurate, the level of dancing steady, and concentration at it’s peak. Later I plan to separate them out onto individual student evaluations, for their purposes of improving.

As far as the grading is concerning, I am looking at poor as how I expect a level one student to execute the step. Fair would be level 2, Good would be level 3 (their current level) and Excellent would be level 4 meaning they have excelled and are ready to move up.

I like to start and end with evaluations so that the students can see their growth on paper, because sometimes they don’t feel the change.

Lesson Plan

From the syllabus to the evaluation I use all information pertaining to the class to create the best lesson plan for each day.

Because it is the first day my lesson plan looks as follows:

Intro: Me and Students

Welcome to jazz level 3 today we will do an evaluation to find out what everyone’s abilities are.

Every class this session will end with a homework assignment and you will be graded on it the following week.

We will have another evaluation at the end of the session to see your improvement.

If you miss class it is up to you to find out your homework, or to reschedule a grading on past homework assignments.

Evaluation: How It Works

You will be evaluated in groups of three based alphabetically.

Somethings will be easy, work hard to show me your best!

Somethings will be difficult, do your best and don’t be discouraged.

Homework: Week 1

A perfect single pirouette on the left and right side.

Homework

I am excited to bring in homework this session and have decided to be creative without over challenging. It allows for the student to put in what he or she chooses to and when they see their results come test day they know if its because they aren’t working outside the studio, or they are not fully understanding the movement.

My creative homework for class is Flash Cards that I am putting the work into! The front of the card will have the homework task: for the first week I am assigning the dancers in Jazz III to perfect a single pirouette, so the front (blank side) says “Jazz Pirouette.”

The back of the flash card reads the definition of the work: Whirl or spin – and then beneath that are the focus points to help the dancer perfect their pirouette. This would include things like:

Utilize your plie

Straight supporting leg

Highest releve

Pulled up to a high parallel retire

Spot your head

Use of arms *do not wind up*

Centered over ball of foot

To the right of the focus points I write in red “I practiced” and that is it. This leave each student to interrupt how they practice when the practice and how often the practice. I want them to think about dance and to let their brains become consumed by all the oppositions going on that make the pirouette perfect!

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zebraloveslion

My name is Amber and I have been dancing for over 24 years now, teaching for the last five and to say it has been rewarding would be an understatement. I am hear to help you teach a better class or become a better dancer with reviews, tips, tricks, nutrition, stretching, strengthening, flexibility, scheduling, lesson plans, playlist and more.
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